Evening Standard comment: Dealing with Britain’s returning jihadists

The departure of hundreds of young Britons to fight with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is bad enough but the reality that many have already returned is chilling. According to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, at least 500-600 British citizens have joined the jihadists, and about 250 of these have already returned. Of that number, he says, two-thirds to three-quarters are from London. Some will be known to the intelligence services, others not. And some will almost certainly have engaged in atrocities.

We can take some comfort from the efficiency of the intelligence services and police, who have averted almost all serious terrorist plots since the 2005 London bombings. But we must take seriously the threat the returnees pose. One option Sir Bernard favours, backed by former shadow home secretary David Davis, is to deprive them of British citizenship. The authorities already have that power for naturalised British citizens, and the Immigration Bill currently before Parliament would make the process easier. But the measure is neither practicable nor acceptable for those born here. Neither is the Mayor’s preferred option of a new presumption of guilt for those who travel to Syria and Iraq — a fundamental change to common law.

Some jihadists may be turned by the intelligence services. There is the option of re-introducing control orders, as Sir Bernard suggests: that would allow us to keep them away from London, a power lost under the watered-down Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures. And former terror laws reviewer Lord Carlile has suggested improvements can be made to police powers to monitor suspects’ emails and calls. Ultimately, though, the most effective option for dealing with our jihadists is to keep them under surveillance, a complex and hugely expensive process.

But we should not forget that those who fight with IS may have been engaged in the horrors the group perpetrates. If evidence is available, British jihadists should be tried for them here. They must be answerable for their actions, whether carried out here or in Iraq.

More school places

As parents and children prepare to return to school next week, we learn that the shortage of school places is now so acute in London that many councils have used tens of millions of pounds from their own budgets for the provision of extra places. The Local Government Association says that while councils created 90,000 primary places last year, a further 130,000 are needed by 2017/18, and 80,716 secondary places will be needed in 2019/20. The Government points out that it has spent £5 billion in this parliament on new provision. The schools minister, Nick Gibb, says the previous government failed to plan properly for the consequences of an increased population and councils themselves failed to do so.

The fact remains that London councils find themselves unable to cope with an increase in pupil numbers that falls disproportionately on the capital. Many of the new schools are free schools, which are not always in areas of most need. London’s boroughs need the powers and the support to provide this most basic of services.